This morning it was beautiful here in northern Michigan so I decided to wash some windows. Up and down and over the head arm movements are tough on most people and I take my time.

By the time I got the the south west side of the house, it was getting pretty warm. I started feeling a little weak....but kept going. As I was getting pretty warm, my eye sight seemed to fade in the center of my vision. Like I had lost contrast and color.....a white veil down the center of my vision.

I went in the house to cool off and it went away in less than 10 minutes. Could this be optic neuritis? It has happened to me before when I get hot and over exert myself.

I've had ON twice and each time it began with pain. Pain whenever I moved my eye from side to side or up and down. I also had vision distortion but always had the pain, too. I'm thinking your situation was just overheating.

I agree with Kelly, Karilann. The heat will do that to me every time..

It sounds exactly like Uhthoff's phenomena, Karilann.

http://mssociety.ca/en/information/s...ng_uhthoff.htm

All should return to baseline.

(My ON also started w severe pain on moving my eye.)
ANN

I agree. I had that symptom sporadically back while I was trying to get diagnosed. The first time, I thought I was getting a migraine or maybe an ocular migraine.

Then I read about people with MS having ON and losing their sight, and it scared the tar out of me. However, my ophthalmologist said my optic nerve looked perfectly healthy, and it still does.

I don't get it very often anymore, and that's probably because I try not to get overheated or overexert myself.

Even though I now know what it was/is (in my case), it's still an unsettling feeling.

The first time I had pain on eye movement and then over the course of 2 or 3days, lost the color, brightness and then the vision completely. It came back within a month or so. Subsequent bouts of it were simialr to the first but I never lost the vision completely.

It has left very large blind spots in the center and upper areas of the visual field and the above symptoms of ON come back if I get overheated, over tired or ill.

Have you had ON before this? If so, maybe the combination of heat and fatigue obstructed the symptoms from being compensated for. That's what seems to happen in my case.

With love, Erika

Your symptom does indeed sound like Uhthoff's, Karilann. I've had that, and ON. Very different symptoms (for me). Uhthoff's used to affect me in the southern heat, when I lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. For me, if was like a cloud had covered the sun on a clear sunny day. Went away after I cooled off.

My ON took away vision from the line of sight down. Everything below what I was looking at was gone. Very specific, too. I could only see the top half of words I read. That happened twice, long before I sought a diagnosis. Lasted several weeks, if I remember correctly.

My very first symptom before I knew I had MS was a white fog over everything in my right eye, the middle was the worst. I remember looking at my college professor, covered my left eye and boom he disappeared. I could *kinda* see the things that were on his sides, but he *the middle vision part* was just a big white fog.

Second bout of ON was an immense amount of pain behind the right eye.

3 bout was last December.
-pain
-double/triple vision
-objects wiggling and moving
Mostly in the left eye that time.

If I get too hot, I get the fog back in the right eye.

If I haven't got enough rest, tired, stressed I get double vision.

Sunlight=MASSIVE pain in my eyes, which then leads to massive pain in my head.

I am super fortunate enough to have my eyesight recover decently after my bouts. I have damage to my left eye from the last bout but at least it has recovered some

I'd stay far away from heat and long exposures to direct sunlight.

Maybe do the West side of the house in the morning and East side in the evening

I'm glad to hear it calmed down after cooling off

Hi karilann

I seem to be having your exact symptoms right now....except not heat related....I'm starting to get a little worried. I don't see out of my left eye (started with sever amblyopia when I was born) but have had ON in left eye and lost a big chunk of what little vision I had in left eye. But now, my "good" eye...my right eye....has the same kindof symptoms you described. Because I never had good vision in my left eye to begin with, I don't really know how the ON started in left eye. In fact, my opthamologist is the one who told me I had it. I didn't even know. But now I'm very worried about this in my right eye. I had a thorough eye exam about 6 months ago and aside from "old eyes" they were ok. Any thoughts? experience? suggestions? I will call neuro on Monday but I'm very nervous here on a Saturday morning.

I hope that your episode has subsided and you are feeling as well as possible. Has it improved?

Thanks for listening and letting me jump on your thread!
janet

Hello jnewk,

If the symptoms have come on suddenly and there is pain with it, you might consider going to the ER. Tell them that you have a history of ON because they might want to start you on steroids to control the inflammation. The sooner that you do that if it is needed, the better the outcome.

Please keep us posted.

With love, Erika